Indirectly controlling a target device on a network

ABSTRACT

Methods and systems are described for a system for transitioning a target device to a first operative state, such as a service operating system. The target device in the first operative state then receives a set of one or more instructions, and processes the received set of one or more instructions to perform a set of one or more operations with regard to an indirect target device. Further, after processing of the set of one or more instructions, the target device transitions from the first operative state to a second operative state.

BACKGROUND

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates generally to network systems, and moreparticularly, to indirectly controlling target devices on a network.

2. Related Art

Automatic deployment systems automatically deploy operating systems,application-level software and other software to single or multipletarget devices in a network, facilitating the enhancement of a largenumber of target devices from a centralized location. Automaticdeployment systems are typically provided in managed system deploymentsolutions such as the Radia® OS Manager commercially available fromHewlett-Packard, Automated Deployment Services (ADS) commerciallyavailable from Microsoft, the Rapid Deployment Pack commerciallyavailable from Altiris, Kickstart commercially available from Red Hat,and Jumpstart commercially available from Sun Microsystems.

Conventional automatic deployment systems implement a set of operationsor steps to advance target device(s) from an initial state throughvarious intermediate goal states and, ultimately, to a final goal statein which the target device(s) is/are operational and ready for use. Thistypically involves well-defined goal states and operations being carriedout on the target device and recorded in the deployment system to guidethe centralized management of the target device from initial to goalstate.

It sometimes becomes necessary to carry out an operation that is notincluded in the normal, well-defined and well-known initial and goalstate operations. Such exceptional operations may be required to becarried out either as a temporary substitute for a standard operation oras an operation to be performed in addition to the standard operations.An example of such an exceptional operation could be a software recoveryoperation for a hardware failure, such as a RAID volume rebuild. Currentsystems, however, do not efficiently handle such exceptional operations,often requiring personnel to manually make the desired changes onindividual target devices.

SUMMARY

In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, a method forenabling a manager to indirectly control a target device is disclosed,the method comprising: transitioning a target device directlycontrollable by the manager to a first operative state; receiving, bythe directly-controllable target device, a set of one or moreinstructions; processing, by the directly-controllable target device,the set of one or more instructions while in the first operative stateto cause the indirectly-controllable target device to perform a set ofone or more operations; and transitioning the directly-controllabletarget device from the first operative state to a second operative stateafter processing of the set of one or more instructions.

In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, a system forenabling a manager to indirectly control a target device is disclosed,the system comprising: the target device; and a target devicedirectly-controllable by the manager and configured to transition to afirst operative state and while in the first operative state, to processa received set of one or more instructions to cause theindirectly-controllable target device to perform a set of one or moreoperations, and wherein the directly-controllable target device isfurther configured to transition to a second operative state afterprocessing of the one or more instructions.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary network, in accordance with oneembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 illustrates a simplified flow chart of a method for indirectlycontrolling a target device in accordance with one embodiment of thepresent invention;

FIG. 3 is a flow chart of the operations performed by an exemplarymechanism for indirectly controlling a target device in accordance withone embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary state diagram for the operations of theflow chart of FIG. 3, in accordance with one embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 5 illustrates a subset of a typical state machine for deployingtargets;

FIGS. 6A and 6B illustrates the portion of the state machine illustratedin FIG. 5 in which an exceptional operation is performed, in accordancewith embodiments of the present invention; and

FIG. 7 illustrates an exemplary network, in accordance with oneembodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 illustrates one embodiment of a network in accordance with oneaspect of the invention. Network 100 comprises an administrationcontroller 102, a configuration manager 104, a configuration managerdatabase 106, a plurality of servers 108 a-108 c (collectively andgenerally referred to herein as server or servers 108), switches 110 aand 110 b, a plurality of clients 112 a-112 f, a Redundant Array ofIndependent (or Inexpensive) Disks (RAID) controller 114, and a storagesystem 116 including a plurality of storage devices 118 a-118 c. In anembodiment, network 100 implements an automatic deployment system (ADS),such as, for example, the Radia® OS Manager commercially available fromHewlett-Packard.

Administration controller 102 may be any type of processor-based system,such as a computer. Administration controller 102 may include aprocessor, memory and storage along with software for execution by theprocessor that permits an administrator to perform management andcontrol operations on network 100. It should be appreciated thatembodiments of administration controller 102 also comprise appropriateuser interface and data entry components and systems such as a keyboard,mouse, a display and the like.

Configuration manager 104 may be any type of processor-based system,such as a server. Configuration manager 104 preferably executes softwarecapable of receiving management commands from administration controller102 and generating packages of data and instructions for execution bytarget devices 108, 110, 112 and 118. These data packages and targetdevices are described in greater detail below.

Configuration manager 104 is further capable of executing control andstoring/receiving information to/from a configuration managementdatabase 106 that stores information for use in the management ofnetwork 100. Administration controller 102 is also preferably capable ofexecuting control over and storing information in or retrievinginformation from configuration management database 106. For ease inexplanation, control communications are illustrated in FIG. 1 as dottedlines while the exchange of data (i.e., information) is illustrated bysolid lines. Additionally, the illustrated arrows are for explanatorypurposes and in actual applications all, a subset, or othercommunications may be bi-directional between the various illustratedcomponents.

As shown in FIG. 1, servers 108 a-108 b are connected to configurationmanager 104. In this illustrative implementation, servers 108 areconfigured to be directly controlled by configuration manager 104. Assuch, servers 108 are an exemplary implementation of adirectly-controllable target device, also referred to herein as a directtarget devices. As used herein, a direct target device is a devicecapable of being directly controlled by configuration manager 104.Although in FIG. 1 all the illustrated target devices are servers, itshould be understood that in other applications directly-controllabletarget devices may be other types of devices such as, for example,computers, laptops, personal data assistants, cell phones, or any othertype of device capable of being directly controlled by configurationmanager 104.

As shown in FIG. 1, servers 108 a and 108 b are connected to switches110 a and 110 b that are, in turn, connected to a plurality of clients112 a-112 c and 112 d-112 f, respectively. Switches 110 a and 100 b maybe any type of switch, such as, for example, an Ethernet switch. Clients112 a-112 f may be any type of device, such as, for example, computers,laptops, power control devices, etc. Server 108 c is connected to RAIDcontroller 114 capable of controlling storage system 116 that includes aplurality of storage devices 118 a-118 c. RAID controller 114 andstorage devices 118 may be any type of device such as those commonlyused in RAID storage systems.

Switches 110, clients 112, RAID controller 114, and storage devices 118are devices which are not capable of being directly controlled byconfiguration manager 104 but which a target device may exercise controlover. Therefore, such devices are referred to herein asindirectly-controllable target devices, indirect target devices or, moresimply, as indirect targets. Thus, as used herein an “indirect target”is a device not capable of being directly controlled by configurationmanager 104 but which a direct target device may exercise control over.Although, FIG. 1 only illustrates a limited type of indirect targets, inother embodiments other indirect targets may be used, such as, forexample, computers, laptops, power control switches, or any type ofdevice configured to be controlled by a target device by not directlycontrollable by configuration manager 104. A more detailed descriptionof an exemplary method by which configuration manager 104 may exercisecontrol over an indirect target is presented below.

FIG. 2 illustrates a simplified flow chart of a method for controllingan indirect target device, in accordance with one embodiment of thepresent invention. As illustrated, the direct target device (e.g., aserver 108) transitions to a first operative state at step 202. As usedherein, the term “operative state” refers to a state of a device inwhich the device executes a particular operating system (OS) or aparticular mode of an OS. In the presently described embodiment, thetarget device transitions at step 202 to a service operative state. Thisservice operative state may be, for example, a state in which the directtarget device executes a service Operating System (OS). As used herein,the term “service OS” refers to an operating system and environmentcapable of supporting operations for causing state transitions inanother target device. For example, a service OS may be a small,purpose-built operating system and environment specifically designed tosupport the operations required to transition a target device from aninitial state to a goal state. This service OS may be, for example, asmall network booted Linux OS, a simple network booted OS environment ora small subset of a Windows OS. A more detailed example of an exemplarymethod for transitioning a target device to a service operative state ispresented below with reference to FIG. 3.

Next, the direct target device (e.g. a server 108), while in the serviceoperative state, receives a set of one or more instructions at block204. In the presently described embodiment, these instructions arereceived from configuration manager 104. It should be appreciated,however, that any management system or software on the network mayprovide such instructions. A more detailed description of an exemplaryembodiment for obtaining these instructions is presented below withreference to FIG. 3.

The target device, while still in the service operative state, thenprocesses the received instructions at block 206. In the presentlydescribed embodiment, the processing of these instructions by the directtarget device results in the direct target device directing an indirecttarget device (e.g., raid controller 114 or a switch 110) to perform aset of one or more operations. If the indirect target device is RAIDcontroller 114, these operations may, for example, direct RAIDcontroller to perform a RAID volume rebuild. Or, for example, if theindirect target is a switch 110, the operations may cause the switch toset up or delete connections between various clients 112. Furtherdescriptions of exemplary operations that a target device may direct anindirect target device to perform are described in further detail below.

After the target device processes the received instructions, the targetdevice then transitions to a second operative state at block 208. In thepresently described embodiment, the target device transitions to anormal operative state in which the target device is in a normal mode ofoperations. As used herein, normal mode of operations refers to a stateof the target device in which the device is deployed with a functioningoperating system and installed applications that make it readily usablefor its intended purpose. Normal operations performed by server 108 mayinclude, for example, email or web serving, management and control of adatabase, a transaction processing system for a retail store, a systemfor tracking inventory, etc.

FIG. 3 illustrates more detailed exemplary flow chart of an exemplarymechanism for directing an indirect target to perform an operation. FIG.3 will be described with reference to the above-discussed network ofFIG. 1. In the embodiment of FIG. 3, server 108 c (i.e., the directtarget device) will be used to direct RAID controller 114 (i.e., theindirect target device) to perform a RAID volume rebuild.

Initially, server 108 c and system 100 are in a desired operative stateof normal mode of operations at block 302. As noted above, as usedherein, normal mode of operations refers to a state of the direct targetdevice in which the device is deployed with a functioning operatingsystem and installed applications that make it readily usable for itsintended purpose. Normal operations performed by server 108 c mayinclude, for example, email or web serving, management and control of adatabase, a transaction processing system for a retail store, a systemfor tracking inventory, etc. Storage system 116 is operating as aredundant array of independent disks (RAID) storage repository forserver 108 c, etc. For example, during normal operations, RAIDcontroller 114 may manage one or more physical disks on RAID storagesystem 116. As is known to those of ordinary skill in the art, a RAIDvolume may comprise two or more physical drives first organized as areliable raw storage area and further divided up into logical volumesusable by the OS and its applications. As is known to those of ordinaryskill in the art, a RAID volume may be comprised of a plurality of thephysical disks 118 a, 118 b and 118 c. For this description the singleRAID volume comprised of this multiple of physical disks 118 a-118 c isthe storage that spans multiple storage devices 118. Administrationcontroller 102, in this example, maintains a state machine for trackingthe state of the system, which at block 302 is the desired state ofnormal operations.

At some point a RAID volume may fail. This failure is detected at block304 by RAID controller 114, which then provides notice to administrationcontroller 102 via server 108 c and configuration manager 104.

Administration controller 102, at block 306, then sends an instructionto configuration manager 104 to institute a rebuild of the failed RAIDvolume. Administration controller 102 need not change the state ofserver 108 c in the state machine nor track whether the RAID rebuild wassuccessful. Instead, in the current embodiment, administrationcontroller 102 simply invokes the operation. That is, in this example,administration controller 102 transmits the instruction to rebuild thefailed RAID volume and then discards the information associated with itsreceipt of the notice that the RAID volume had failed. Instead, itsimply treats server 108 c as though it has stayed in the desired stateof normal operations.

At block 308, configuration manager 104 instructs server 108 c to rebootinto a service operative state, e.g., a service Operating System (OS)state. In response, server 108 c reboots so that it is executing aservice OS at block 310. As noted above, this service OS may be, forexample, a small network booted Linux OS, a simple network booted OSenvironment or a small subset of a Windows OS. Server 108 c then sends arequest to configuration manager 104 requesting information andinstructions for its operations at block 312.

Then, at block 314, configuration manager 104 retrieves information forforwarding to server 108 c. This information may include both low-levelmanaged elements (LMEs) or operations that can be applied to the directtarget device itself and that may be reflected in the state transitionsof the direct target device from initial to goal state and/or “shadow”LMEs or operations to be applied to devices controlled by the targetdevice but that are not or cannot be managed or controlled by themanagement system; that is, indirect target devices. As used herein, anLME or shadow LME is package of instructions and data that are to beexecuted by a target (i.e., in this example server 108 c) to cause thedirect target to perform some functions related to itself or functionsrelated to an indirect device which may be controlled by the directtarget. An LME may be entirely abstract regarding the target, the time,and other LMEs. These instructions may include information regardingabout how it is to be applied (e.g., what tools (software), resourcefiles, configuration files, etc. to use), along with any requirementsthe LME might have. An exemplary LME might be a package of instructionsand data for use in upgrading server 108's motherboard firmware. In suchan example, the LME might comprise both the updated firmware and theinstructions necessary for server 108 to update the firmware. Forsimplicity, in this example, configuration manager 104 does not retrievean LME, however, in other examples; one or more LMEs may be retrievedfor server 108 c.

As noted above, configuration manager 104 may also provide server 108 cwith one or more shadow LMEs. A shadow LME is an LME directed not towarda direct target but instead towards an indirect target. As noted above,an indirect target is a device not directly accessible by configurationmanager 104. Rather, an indirect target is only accessibly byconfiguration manager 104 through a target device.

In this example, RAID controller 114 is an indirect target andconfiguration manager 104 has been directed to cause RAID controller 114to perform a RAID volume rebuild. As such, in this example,configuration manager 104 creates a shadow LME for performing thisrebuild RAID volume operation. This shadow LME preferably is a packageof data and instructions for use by server 108 in directing RAIDcontroller 114 to perform the RAID volume rebuild. Thus, this shadow LMEmay include, for example, identifiers for the storage device(s) that areto comprise the RAID volume, any login information for accessing RAIDcontroller 114 (if needed), along with any other type of informationnecessary for instituting a RAID volume rebuild. As noted above,configuration manager 104 may obtain the data and instructions for thisshadow LME from configuration management database 106.

Configuration manager 104 then provides the LMEs and shadow LMEs toserver 108 at block 316. In this example, no LMEs and only a singleshadow LME regarding a RAID volume rebuild are provided to server 108 c.Configuration manager 104 may provide this shadow LME in a “fire andforget” manner. That is, it provides the shadow LME to server 108 andneed not track whether the RAID volume rebuild was successful.

Server 108 c then executes the LMEs and shadow LMEs at step 318. Thus,in this example, server 108 c receives the shadow LME regardingrebuilding the RAID volume and accordingly forwards instructions anddata to RAID controller 114 directing RAID controller 114 to perform theRAID volume rebuild. Server 108 may either provide these instructionsand data to RAID controller 114 in a fire and forget manner, or it maytrack whether the rebuild was successful.

After performance of the shadow LME (e.g., the RAID volume rebuild),server 108 c reboots back into an operative state of normal operationsat block 320. That is, server 108 c reboots into a normal operatingstate where it again performs its normal operations. As noted above,these normal operations may include, for example, email, web serving ortransaction processing that utilizes the storage system 116 for its datarepository.

In the presently described example of a RAID volume rebuild, thisoperation (i.e., the RAID volume rebuild) does not alter the state ofthe system. That is, prior to the RAID volume failure, the system wasoperating in the desired state of normal operations. This state is notchanged during the RAID volume rebuild and after configuration manager104 forwards the shadow LME to server 108 c, configuration manager 104and administration controller 102 continue to view the system 100 andserver 108 c as being in the desired state of normal operations. Thus,the presently described shadow LME (i.e., the RAID volume rebuild) issimply a mechanism for implementing a temporary operation to bring thesystem back to a well-known, well-defined point in the systems statemachine (e.g., the state of normal mode of operations).

FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary state diagram for the operations of theflow chart of FIG. 3, in accordance with one embodiment of theinvention. As noted above, administration controller 102 may maintain astate machine for system 100. Prior to failure of the RAID volume,system 100 is in the desired state of Final Deploy State 402. Afterfailure of the RAID volume, a shadow LME is used to perform a temporaryoperation 404 of a RAID volume rebuild. After performance of this RAIDvolume rebuild, system 100 remains in the desired state of Final DeployState 402. As such, the performance of this shadow LME was stateless(i.e., it had no impact on the state of this maintained in the statemachine).

In addition to using a shadow LME when the system is in a desired stateof Final Deploy State, shadow LME's may also be used during other statesor during transitions between states. For example, shadow LMEs may beused during activating of a target device, such as, for example, when itbecomes necessary to carry out an operation that may be outside thenormal set of operations. These exceptional operations are not part ofthe operations generally required to bring a system to a final(ready-to-use) state. Further, these exceptional operations may notreplace a state in the sequence of operations. Rather, they may be usedas a temporary substitute for a typical operation or step in moving atarget to its next goal state in activation. An example of such anoperation could be a software recovery for a hardware failure (e.g., aRAID volume rebuild) that occurs after the system has been running andfunctioning in a production environment. Further, in such examples, anadministrator via administration controller 102, as in the aboveexample, may manage, oversee, and control system 100, including theperformance of this operation outside the normal set of operations.

As noted above, shadow LMEs are temporary operations that are notintended to cause a change in operation of the state machine (e.g., astate machine for deploying targets). On the contrary, a shadow LME ispreferably a temporary operation that brings the target device back to adefined point in the state machine. Once the machine has been returnedto a known state in the state machine, administration controller 102 andconfiguration manager 104 may resume progress towards the direct targetdevice's goal state. Additionally, during performance of the shadow LME,one ore more operations of the state machine may be temporarilybypassed, re-routed, inserted, or overlaid onto the state machine inorder to bring the system back into compliance with one of the state ofthe state machine (e.g. a state machine for deploying targets).

FIG. 5 illustrates a subset of a typical state machine for deployingtargets, in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. Twostates of the state machine are illustrated in FIG. 5: a deploy state 1A(state 502) and a deploy state 1B (state 504). Prior to transitioning todeploy state 1A 502, the state machine may be in a previous goal state,such as, for example, an initial state for setting up a RAID volume, astate for partitioning the storage drives for the RAID volume, a statefor updating the firmware for RAID controller 114, etc. During deploystate 1A 502, the RAID volume is not ready. Next, a standard stateoperation for Building the RAID volume 506 is performed (referred toherein as “Build RAID volume”), which in typical operations transitionsthe state machine to deploy state 1B 504 at which point the system isready for an OS partition. Next, the state machine may transition to anext goal state. Such an exemplary transition and goal state may includean operation regarding installing the OS and a next goal stateindicating that the OS is installed and ready to boot.

As noted above, sometimes problems may arise which require an operationoutside the typical operations. For example, in the above example ofFIG. 5, the RAID volume may partially fail after deployment, but acomplete build is not required. Rather, only a partial rebuild andrepair operation may be necessary. Further, in such an example,performance of the typical full build of the RAID volume 506 operationmight undesirably destroy stored data.

FIGS. 6A and 6B illustrate a subset of a state machine for deployingtargets in which a non-typical operation is performed in accordance withone embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 6A, during thetransition from deploy state 1A 502 to deploy state 1B, a shadow LME forrepairing a RAID volume 602 is performed rather than performance of afull build of a RAID volume 506 as in the typical operation of FIG. 5.Thus, in this example, for the target, the Build Raid volume 506operation is temporarily overridden by a shadow repair RAID volume 602operation.

It should be noted that this is a simplified diagram, and in actual orother implementations, the state transitioned to deploy state 1A 502 mayor may not be deploy state 1B 504. For example, deploy state 1B mayalready be satisfied (e.g., the OS system was already installed and assuch it is not necessary to reinstall the OS), such as, for example, dueto a previous deployment. Thus, in such an example, deploy state 1Amight transition to another goal state (e.g., a state indicating thatthe OS is installed and ready to boot), rather than transitioning todeploy state 1B 504.

Upon successful completion of the shadow LME for repairing the RAIDvolume 602 (or simply upon administration controller 102 andconfiguration manager 104 providing the shadow LME to server 108 in afire and forget implementation), the state machine may be modified toremove the repair RAID volume 602 transition from itself and restore thepermanent operation of “Build RAID volume” 506 as the transitionoperation from deploy state 1A 502 to deploy state 1B 504. For example,as illustrated in FIG. 6B, the repair RAID volume 602 operation isremoved from the state machine (or, for example, never entered into thestate machine) as indicated by the dotted line between deploy state 1A502 and deploy state 1B 504. Instead, the typical operation of “BuildRAID volume” 506 is entered into the state machine, as indicated by thesolid line between deploy state 1A 502 and deploy state 1B 504. Thus,the state machine will appear as though no abnormal conditions occurred.That is, the state machine will appear identical to the typical statemachine, as illustrated by FIG. 5.

The shadow LME for repairing a RAID volume 602 discussed with referenceto FIGS. 6 and 7 may utilize the same or similar steps to thosediscussed above with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3. That is, theadministration controller 502 and/or configuration controller 504 mayprovide the shadow LME to server 108 in a fire and forget manner. Thatis, the shadow LME is provided to server 108 for performance on anindirect target, RAID controller 114, and neither administrationcontroller 502 nor configuration controller 504 track whether the RAIDvolume rebuild 506 was successful.

Although the presently described embodiments were discussed withreference to repairing a RAID volume, other types of shadow LMEs arepossible without departing from the scope of the invention. For example,returning to FIG. 1, in another example, it may become necessary (ordesirable) for an administrator to direct switch 110 a to modify itsconnections (e.g., provide switching functions for a different subset ofclients). In such an example, configuration manager 104 may create ashadow LME for altering the switch configuration by retrieving fromconfiguration management database 106 the IP addresses for the clientsto be switched along with an IP address and logon information for switch110 a. Configuration manager 104 may then direct server 108 a to rebootinto the service OS state. Server 108 a may then receive the shadow LMEfrom configuration manager 104 and accordingly reconfigure switch 110 a.After which, server 108 a reboots back into its normal state ofoperations where it may, for example, function as a standard server. Insuch an example, configuration manager 104 may provide the shadow LME toserver 108 in a fire and forget manner.

Further, in yet other examples, shadow LMEs may be used to direct otherprogrammable or otherwise configurable systems to perform functionsoutside their normal set of functions related to indirect targets. FIG.7 illustrates an exemplary network, in accordance with an aspect of theinvention. As illustrated, configuration manager 104 is connected toservers 708 via a network 702. As shown, servers 708 are in turnconnected to cash registers 710. Network 702 may be any type of network,such as, for example, a LAN, a MAN, a WAN, or the Internet. Duringnormal operations, servers 708 are direct targets and configured tocommunicate with configuration manager 104 via network 702. Cashregisters 710 are indirect targets.

In an example, at some point, it may be necessary (or desirable) toupdate the firmware of cash registers 710. In such an example, anadministrator via administration controller 102 may direct configurationmanager 104 to create a shadow LME for performing the firmware update.Configuration manager 104 may then retrieve the data and instructions(e.g., the firmware update and instructions for installation) for theshadow LME from configuration management database 106. This firmwareupdate and its installation instructions may be stored in configurationmanagement database 106 by the administrator using administrationcontroller 102.

As described above with reference to FIG. 3, servers 708 may initiallybe operating in a normal mode of operations performing normaloperations. These normal operations may include functioning as astandard server for a store, where servers 708 may, for example, keeptrack of inventory, cash in the store, along with, for example otherfinancials for the store. Configuration manager 104 may then directservers 708 to reboot into the service OS environment. Configurationmanager 104 may then provide the shadow LME to servers 708 in a fire andforget manner. Servers 708 may then accordingly update the firmware oncash registers 710. After which, servers 708 may then reboot back intotheir normal operations. As with the above-discussed examples, afterperformance of the shadow LME, its performance has not impacted theoverall state machine for the system. In this example as in otherinstances, the direct target device temporarily becomes an element ofthe management system by carrying out operations to configure or managedevices that are not or cannot be directly managed by the managementsystem.

Other embodiments of the invention will be apparent to those skilled inthe art from consideration of the specification and practice of theinvention disclosed herein. It is intended that the specification andexamples be considered as exemplary only, with a true scope and spiritof the invention being indicated by the following claims.

1. A method for enabling a manager to indirectly control a target deviceis disclosed, the method comprising: transitioning a target devicedirectly controllable by the manager to a first operative state;receiving, by the directly-controllable target device, a set of one ormore instructions; processing, by the directly-controllable targetdevice, the set of one or more instructions while in the first operativestate to cause the indirectly-controllable target device to perform aset of one or more operations; and transitioning thedirectly-controllable target device from the first operative state to asecond operative state after processing of the set of one or moreinstructions.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first operativestate is a state in which the directly-controllable target device isexecuting a service Operating System (OS).
 3. The method of claim 1,wherein the second operative state is a state in which thedirectly-controllable target device executes a normal mode ofoperations.
 4. The method of claim 1, further comprising: retrievingfrom storage information related to the set of one or more instructions;and providing the set of one or more instructions and the retrievedinformation to the directly-controllable target device.
 5. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the transitioning of the directly-controllable targetdevice to the first operative state and the performance of the set ofone or more operations is initiated by an administrator.
 6. The methodof claim 1, further comprising: maintaining a state machine comprisingone or more goal states; and wherein the state machine remains in one ofthe state machine's goal states during the performance of the set of oneor more operations.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein the performance ofthe set of one or more operations transitions the state machine from afirst goal state to a second goal state.
 8. A system for enabling amanager to indirectly control a target device comprising: the targetdevice; and a target device directly-controllable by the manager andconfigured to transition to a first operative state and while in thefirst operative state, to process a received set of one or moreinstructions to cause the indirectly-controllable target device toperform a set of one or more operations, and wherein thedirectly-controllable target device is further configured to transitionto a second operative state after processing of the one or moreinstructions.
 9. The system of claim 8, wherein the first operativestate is a state in which the direct target device is executing aservice Operating System.
 10. The system of claim 8, wherein the secondoperative state is a state in which the direct target device executes anormal mode of operations.
 11. The system of claim 8, furthercomprising: a configuration manager database configured to storeinformation related to the set of one or more instructions; and aconfiguration manager configured to retrieve the information related tothe set of one or more instructions from the configuration managerdatabase and provide the set of one or more instructions and theretrieved information to the indirect target device.
 12. The system ofclaim 8, further comprising: an administration controller configured toenable an administrator to initiate the transition of the direct targetdevice to the first operative state so that it may receive and processthe set of one or more instructions.
 13. The system of claim 12, whereinthe administration controller is further configured to maintain a statemachine comprising one or more goal states; and wherein the statemachine remains in one of the state machine's goal states during theperformance of the set of one or more operations.
 14. The system ofclaim 13, wherein the performance of the set of one or more operationstransitions the state machine from a first goal state to a second goalstate.
 15. A system controlling an indirect target device, comprising anindirect target device; and a direct target device comprising: means fortransitioning the direct target device to a first operative state; meansfor receiving a set of one or more instructions; means for processingthe set of one or more instructions while in the first operative stateto cause the indirect target device to perform a set of one or moreoperations; and means for transitioning the direct target device fromthe first operative state to a second operative state after processingof the set of one or more instructions.
 16. The system of claim 15,wherein the first operative state is a state in which the indirecttarget device is executing a service Operating System.
 17. The system ofclaim 15, wherein the second operative state is a state in which theindirect target device executes a normal mode of operations.
 18. Thesystem of claim 15, further comprising means for retrieving informationrelated to the set of one or more instructions from storage; and meansfor providing the set of one or more instructions and the retrievedinformation to the direct target device.
 19. The system of claim 15,further comprising: means for enabling an administrator to initiate thetransitioning of the direct target device to the first operative stepand the performance of the set of one or more operations.
 20. The systemof claim 15, further comprising: means for maintaining a state machinecomprising one or more goal states; and wherein the state machineremains in one of the state machine's goal states during the performanceof the set of one or more operations.